HMRC Promises Not To sell Tax Data

The Register reports that HMRC has promised not to sell any taxpayer data to the private sector, only "share" it.

 "No final decisions have been taken, but HMRC remains committed to safeguarding taxpayer confidentiality," El Reg was told by an HMRC spokesman.

HMRC would only share data where this would generate clear public benefits, and where there are robust safeguards in place. There is no question of HMRC selling data."

He added:

Last year’s consultation made it very clear that there would be a rigorous accreditation process for anyone wanting access to the data and that any access would take place in a secure environment. Those accessing data would be subject to the same confidentiality provisions as HMRC staff, including a criminal sanction for unlawful disclosure of taxpayer information.
HMRC will be consulting further and will ask for views on whether to charge to cover the costs of processing and providing anonymised data. This would not be charging for the data itself, purely covering the costs of providing it.

We understand that the types of "anonymised" data the HMRC could offload includes employment information about citizens who have been in government programmes to help them find a job and housing info to see how certain characteristics might be connected to excess winter mortality rates."

So that's alright then?

Irrespective of the promise not to charge for the data, there is still a way that HMRC can benefit if it it uses its brains.

How?

Simply follow a similar business model to the one that it employs with Cable & Wireless for 0845 numbers, wherein Cable & Wireless earn revenue from the number whilst offsetting part of that revenue against the charges HMRC for providing the phone service.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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HMRC Strike Ballot

The Morning Star reports that 50,000 tax workers are being balloted on industrial action in a dispute over job cuts.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) which announced the ballot yesterday.

PCS is quoted:

“Despite significant opposition, HMRC is pressing ahead with the closure of all its 281 walk-in enquiry centres.

This will cut face-to-face tax advice for millions of people, particularly older people and migrant workers, and put 1,300 jobs at risk.”

The ballot closes on Friday, May 16. If members vote for action, PCS is planning to launch a series of one-day and shorter strikes, and other forms of industrial action.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: 

“A decade of cuts has left HMRC unable to cope with its crucial job of collecting the taxes that fund the other public services we all rely on.

These cuts must be stopped and the government must invest in our society and a serious clampdown on the tax dodgers who deprive our public finances of tens of billions of pounds a year.”

A PCS HMRC spokesperson is quoted on the PCS site, referring to the Ecclestone tax avoidance story:

"The irony is not lost on us or our members who see one of the richest people in Britain dodging his tax on the same day as we are being forced to ballot our members in HMRC on industrial action. The department is intent on more privatisation and cutting of our members’ jobs which will lead to less capactiy (PCS may want to spell check their site) for collection of taxes. We want to close the widening tax gap whereas this government seems happy to let billionaires get away with tax avoidance.”

Will industrial action change the current direction of HMRC, and improve its performance?

Please feel free to share your views.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Low Hanging Fruit

The BBC's Panorama reports that Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has avoided a potential £1.2BN in taxes as a result of a secret deal with HMRC, wherein after a nine year investigation HMRC agreed to accept £10M in 2008.

Panorama's investigation goes back to 1995, when Mr Ecclestone secured ownership of the TV rights of Formula 1.

Shortly afterwards he moved this asset offshore, giving the rights to his then wife, Slavica.
She transferred them to a family trust in Liechtenstein, before selling them for a profit, free of UK tax.

The BBC uses the phrase "tax dodge" but then, in the same sentence, notes that it is legally watertight provided Mr Ecclestone did not set up, or control, the trust.


In a case like this, both HMRC and the taxpayer's lawyers will have arguments/justifications that back up their respective positions. However, at some stage a decision has to be made (by both parties) as to whether the costs of pursuing the case outweigh the costs of coming to a settlement.

Sadly, for those of us without a phalanx of lawyers and deep pockets such "negotiations" never occur. Low hanging fruit (even if not very large) is usually the easiest to pick.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Online Petition Against Selling Tax Data

The furore over HMRC's plans to sell off tax data to the private sector continues unabated.

An online petition has now been created asking Homer not to go forward with the plans. Thus far it has collected over 127,000 signatures.

You may sign it here.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Whatever Happened To "Thank You"?

There is a splendid letter in today's Telegraph from a taxpayer ("customer" sticks in the throat), who is a tad upset that HMRC have used the word "penalties" 11 times in a letter covering the subject of tax returns.

The author goes on to say that such letters should in future include some words of thanks for those who have paid their tax.

Splendid!

Here is the letter in full:

"SIR – My wife and I have just received letters from HMRC informing us that it is time to complete our tax returns. In a single letter they manage to use the word “penalties” (for non-compliance) 11 times. 

Perhaps instead of threatening us with penalties, they would like to thank us for the amount of tax and National Insurance contributions we paid last year. 

May I suggest that they illustrate this with a pie chart showing a breakdown of how much we were allowed to keep and how much was spent on education, the NHS, police, defence, benefits, overseas aid, MPs’ expenses and interest payments on the national debt. I’m sure this would be very easy with their expensive new computer system. It would also be illuminating (and depressing) if they could show the running total we have paid in direct taxes since we started work almost 50 years ago. 

Graham Worthington
Lamothe-Goas, Midi-Pyrénées, France"

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Overloaded?

HMRC no longer provide PAYE payment schedules, this practice stopped some years ago.

As per Accountingweb, HMRC said:

"Routine provision of PAYE payment schedules stopped several years ago, bringing PAYE into line with other taxes, because it was not sustainable to continue due to an increasing number of requests.

This change in approach was introduced in April 2011 and announced through Employer Bulletin Issue 38 (page 21) and subsequently incorporated into our guidance (DMBM520287), which can be accessed on the HMRC website at which is available to customers at DMBM520287, which can be accessed at: debt and return pursuit: PAYE: payment schedule requests: background." 

Guidance provided by HMRC included:

• Customers are required to maintain their own records from which relevant information can be extracted
• Additionally, the Business Tax Dashboard was introduced for the use of customers and presented another means for them to find what payments had been received and how these were allocated
• Using these two sources resolves the majority of issues, but where exceptionally this doesn’t and a customer needs help with locating a limited number of payments, then the Revenue will provide assistance.

Now this may be all very well and dandy, if HMRC do honour the third bullet point and help when things get in a muddle. Except that, according to Nichola Ross Martin, HMRC does not help out under such circumstances.

Ross Martin made an error when paying HMRC through online banking. She accidentally left out part of a PAYE reference where amounts were allocated to the previous year and to ‘suspense’.

HMRC’s debt management and banking team then contacted her about alleged underpayments, but refused to provide a list of payments received. She was unable to see which payments were lost and work out why that had happened.

On attempting to get in touch with both the debt management and banking team, and the PAYE team, she was passed back and forth.

The debt and banking team "would not admit" that she had overpaid 2013/14 because they tried to allocate her month one payment back to 2012/13. They then asked for the money for 2013/14.

"Why will HMRC not provide a schedule of the payments that they receive?" 

Methinks that the number of queries being received by HMRC along these lines have overwhelmed the system; ie it cannot cope.

Have any loyal readers had similar experiences?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"